After weeks of taking a battering at the hands of petrol protestors, pensioners and political authors, Gordon Brown turned the tables on his accusers this afternoon with a rousing speech to the Labour party conference. Usually a loud but leaden orator, he achieved an unexpectedly upbeat tone and at times appeared almost to enjoy delivering his text.

A Brown smile is a rare thing, but it was on view today as he laid into the shadow chancellor, Michael Portillo, for his role in increasing taxes under the last Tory government. And as he finished speaking, the consensus, among both delegates and the media, was that the chancellor had gone a long way towards restoring his commanding place in British politics.

The speech contained little that was new - details of a rise in payments to the poorest pensioners, promises to improve employment rights for women and old people in a second Labour term, and an indication that the minimum wage will rise next year. But what counted was less the content than the tone with which it was delivered.

Labour delegates, in a subdued mood in the wake of recent opinion polls, were cheered enough to give the chancellor a standing ovation that may rival the prime minister's in length. After his speech, when Brown was joined on the platform by his new wife, Sarah, the applause grew even louder.

Brown's message on petrol was simple: "There will be no sudden lurches in tax or spending policy." Conceding that protestors had a point about the high price of fuel, he pinned hopes of a respite on concerted international action to reduce crude oil prices.

Beyond this he offered to provoke a "great national debate" on taxation: calling for the merits of Labour policy to be more widely promoted.

This is unlikely to prevent future protests, though, particularly if fuel prices continue to rise, as looks possible. It was also noticable that Brown left himself what US politicians call "wriggle room" to cut fuel prices in the future should the government's current hardline stance becomes unsustainable.

More blatent was Brown's cave-in to pensioners calling for a rise in their incomces. Though much of this had been heralded in interviews last week, Brown's words nonetheless reassured some delegates.

"The basic state pension is now and will remain the foundation of everything we will do," he said.

Announcing a rise in the minimum income guarantee for the "poorest pensioners" from £78 to £90 a week, he notably stood against restoring the link between the rise in average earnings and the state pension, as many here would like.

Brown ended by painting a picture of the stark choice between a Labour government and a potential Conservative one. He called for the government to work towards full employment, an end to child poverty and what he called "prosperity for all".

That phrase summed up the entire address: empty of specifics but capable of generating the feelgood factor that delegates here so wanted.